Author Review: 

Rapacity and Resistance in the Anthropocene

Can a man achieve fulfillment by focusing only on himself? 

Daniel Lazaro was born into the turbulence of climate politics. When an accident at his father’s mine devastated the local economy and fouled the groundwater, Daniel thought only of how this affected him. This may have been understandable for a teenager whose mother retreated into fanatical religion and father turned to suicide, leaving him to get by on his own. And that he pulled himself together and finished college and graduated from law school spoke to his resilience and determination. 

Daniel never dwelled on the environmental impact of the mine disaster, as that was beyond his control and largely out of his line of sight. And when a powerful lobbying firm dangled prosperity before him, it was easy to join a world where greed would always trump conscience, and ignore the global ramifications of his work. He focused instead on building an arcadian sanctuary for a wife who loved him unconditionally and a daughter who filled his home with laughter.

But then tragedy returns to plague Daniel, knocking from beneath him the buttresses of all he has achieved and all he has aspired to, leaving him debilitated and alone. 

He wallows in personal grief and guilt until he discovers there are others who look beyond their own comfort and safety, who take upon themselves the burden of a death spiral threatening us all. “The final notice is nailed to the planet’s door, my friend,” Kristof Tyndall tells him. “Foreclosure proceedings have begun.”

“It is a sad commentary,” another activist says, “when a society is more outraged by soup on a painting than about its government investing in fossil fuels.” 

But is activism and protest the answer? And where does civil disobedience cross the line to civilizational collapse? Is it possible to sound the global alarm without becoming an agent of destruction, and along the way find redemption and even love?

Two Degrees presents Daniel Lazaro with the big questions, about survival, yes, but also about integrity and responsibility. Seeking answers to these questions may also be his only way forward."